Internet Surfer 2.0/Internet Surfer 2.0 (Wayzata Technology) (1996).iso/pc/text/mac/faqs.346

Text File | 1996-02-12 | 27.9 KB | 689 lines

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.346




QUESTION: What's about SLS ?

ANSWER: (this is part of the FAQ written for SLS 0.98p5 by Peter
MacDonald).
SLS (Softlanding Linux System) Copywrite 1992, Softlanding Software.

which is NOT just an image dump of someones Unix system.

Also note that in the interest of preventing ftp storms, the version
of SLS that appears on the internet, is not quite the same as the
version distributed by Softlanding.   Softlanding regularly gets a
whole new version which has the changes integrated.   But the updates
to the Internet version are tailored to minimize the amount that has
to be downloaded to become current.  That is why bugs manage to creep
in on me.  I am not installing and testing the Internet version,
although, functionally, it should be quite close to the Softlanding
one.

So, why am I telling you this?  After the next period of stability
(few changes to SLS), I will be uploading the Softlanding version of
SLS to tsx-11.mit.edu.

This distribution is freely available if you have internet
access, or an obliging friend with access to it.

The purposes of the SLS are the following:
0) provide an initial installation program (for the queasy).
1) utilities compiled to use minimal disk space.
2) provide a reasonably complete/integrated U*ix system.
3) provide a means to install and uninstall packages.
4) permit partial installations for small disk configs.
5) add a menu driven, extensible system administration.
6) take the hassle out of collecting and setting up a system.
7) give non internet users access to Linux.
8) provide a distribution that can be easily updated.

SLS is a binary mostly distribution (except for the kernel), and is
broken into multiple parts, or series, each of which is denoted by a letter
followed by the disk number as follows:

        a1-aN: The minimal base system
        b1-bN: Base system extras, like man pages, emacs etc.
        c1-cN: The compiler(s), gcc/g++/p2c/f2c
        x1-xN: The X-windows distribution
        i1-iN: Interviews (doc and idraw)
        t1-tN: TeX (document processing)

This scheme allows new disks to be added to the distribution without
changing the disk numbering.  Also, the sysinstall program doesn't
have to be changed when new disks are added as the last disk is marked
by the presence of the file "install.end".  And when interviews is
added, say as a new series "i", it can be installed with:

        sysinstall -series i

Highlights of the base are:  gcc/g++, emacs, kermit, elm/mail/uucp,
gdb, sc (spreadsheet), man pages, groff, elvis, zip/zoo/lh and menu.
Highlights of X are: X, programmers libs, 75 dpi fonts, games (spider,
tetris, xvier, chess, othello, xeyes, etc) and utilities like xmag,
xmenu, xcolormap and ghostscript.  Approximate usage is as follows:

Tiny base system:        9 Meg  (Series 'a')
Main base system:       25 Meg  (Series 'a', 'b' and 'c')
Main base system + X11: 45 Meg  (Series 'a', 'b', 'c' and 'x')

Please read the file COPYING which outlines the GNU copying
restrictions.  The linux kernel is copywrite Linux B. Torvalds.
Various other copywrites apply, but the upshot is that you
may do whatever you like with SLS, except restrict others
in any way from doing likewise, and you must leave all copywrites
intact, and you can not misrepresent or take credit for others work.

                AVAILABILITY

SLS is available from the address:

        Softlanding Software
        910 Lodge Ave.
        Victoria, B.C., Canada
        V8X-3A8
        [phone]

More details about SLS can be asked to [e-mail]

QUESTION: How do I go about getting and installing the SLS release?

ANSWER: Ftp to one of the Linux sites and check out the files in the
"SLS" directory (usually under "packages" in the Linux directory).
The README files there explain it all; basically you download the
images (which are almost all DOS format files), rawrite the boot
disk to a floppy, and boot from it. Because the SLS release files are
DOS format, you don't have to rawrite them: the SLS installation reads
them directly. You can also get the SLS release on floppies by
snail mail for a nominal fee (for non-netters). See the SLS README
file for details.


III.C. SOME COMMON PROBLEMS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: How can I boot Linux off of my hard drive?

ANSWER: You need to install the "LILO" program which changes the boot
sector of your hard drive to allow you to choose between a DOS or a Linux
partition to boot from. These programs are provided with most major
releases, or you can  get them seperately from one of the FTP sites.


QUESTION: I have the previous Linux version, how can I upgrade it?

ANSWER: If you've never done this before, get the kernel sources from
your nearest FTP site (in a file named something like linux-*.tar.Z)
and unpack them into /usr/src/linux. Then edit the Makefile to your
taste, and run "make". Assuming you have GCC installed correctly, the
kernel should compile and you'll be left with a new "Image" which is your
new kernel: if you boot from harddrive, copy the Image to wherever you
told LILO to look for it, or if you boot from floppy dd the Image to a
new floppy. Make sure that you run "rdev" on the Image to make it look
for the correct partition for your root filesystem (if you specified
this correctly in the Makefile you don't need to do this).

Note: You may need to get the new sources for programs like "mount" or
"ps"  corresponding to your new kernel version as well. These programs
tend to change with each kernel version, so after making your new kernel
make sure you have the most recent versions of these programs and compile
them.

If you HAVE done this before, you can just apply the source patches to
your old sources and then recompile (i.e. you don't have to get the
entire kernel sources all over again). Use the "patch" program to do
this.


QUESTION: How can I be sure I won't be writing over anything
important?  I have to use DOS on my machine, and I don't want to
lose any files.

ANSWER: Back up everything. Just in case. Then, write some easily
recognizable pattern to the partition you have reserved for linux,
using some DOS tool. You can then use "cat /dev/hdX" under linux to
examine which of the partitions you used.


QUESTION: Linux mkfs doesn't accept the size I give the device, although
I double-checked with fdisk, and it's correct.

ANSWER: Be sure you give the size in Linux BLOCKS (1024 bytes), not
sectors. Also make sure that you have the right partition: partitions
are numbered "/dev/hda1", "/dev/hda2", and so on (and "/dev/hdb1",
"/dev/hdb2" for the second hard drive)... DON'T use "/dev/hda" or
"/dev/hdb" as they correspond to the entire disk, not just single
partitions.


QUESTION: I just rebooted my machine, and now Linux dies with a
"panic: trying to free unused inode". What's going on?

ANSWER: You probably forgot to "sync" before rebooting, which stores
on the disk physically the contents of the kernel buffers. You can
either run "fsck" on the partition to TRY to correct the problem (it
might fail), or re-mkfs and re-install the software on that partition.


QUESTION: I have a one partitionned 40Mb disk. If I run mkfs, what
happens?

ANSWER: If you do that, you will have an empty 40Mb Linux file system.
You should, at least, make on your hard disk, one partition per
operating system you want to use.


QUESTION: Can I use both OS/2 and Linux on my machine??

ANSWER: Yes! See the following two Q/A's about getting your OS/2 Boot
Manager to work. But, be warned: IF YOU USE OS/2, DO NOT USE LINUX's
FDISK TO CREATE  LINUX PARTITIONS!! The problem is with a bug/feature in
OS/2's fdisk that tries to correct 'errors' in partitions that it doesn't
like... Linux partitions included. The solution: make your Linux
partitions with OS/2's fdisk, then use Linux's fdisk to change the
partition ID's to the right values (this is self-explanatory with Linux's
fdisk).

If you made your Linux partitions with Linux's fdisk, and OS/2 sees them,
it will think they have errors and end up trashing them.


QUESTION: I use OS/2's Boot Manager on my hard drive. How can I get it to
recognize Linux?

ANSWER: To do this, install LILO on your Linux root partition, NOT on
your hard drive's master boot record. The lilo command for this would be
(if /dev/hda3 is your Linux root partition, and your Linux kernel is in
/vmlinux):

    /etc/lilo/lilo -c -b /dev/hda3 -v -v /vmlinux

Then use OS/2's fdisk to add it to the Boot Manager.


QUESTION: When I run Linux's fdisk it says "OPUS" for OS/2's Boot Manager
partition. Is this right? What's OPUS?

ANSWER: It's correct. OPUS is BBS software that used partition type 0x0A
long before OS/2.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#    LaBRI              |                        #
#  351 cours de la Liberation    |  e-mail:  [e-mail]    #
#  33405 Talence Cedex         |                        #
#                   |                        #
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--
  There will be some sig, once our local net will be reliable.
        Right now I rather stay anonymous.
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu comp.os.linux:18318 news.answers:4214
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!julienas!corton!geocub!labri.greco-prog.fr!corsini
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,news.answers
Subject: Linux Frequently Asked Questions 2/4 [monthly posted]
Summary: Linux, a small and free unix for 386-AT computers.
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 24 Nov 92 23:22:02 GMT
Expires: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 23:00:00 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Marc-Michel CORSINI)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Greco Prog. CNRS & LaBRI, Bordeaux France
Lines: 1132
Approved: [e-mail]
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>

Archive-name: linux-faq/part2
Last-Modified: 92/11/20
Version: 1.11

*********************************************************
*                            *
*   Answers to Frequently asked questions about Linux   *
*                            *
*********************************************************

This post contains Part 2 of the Linux FAQ (4 parts).
It must be read *after* the first part.

================================8<=====8<==============================
CONTENTS (of this part)

    IV.    LINUX and DOS                (part2)
    V.    SOME CLASSICAL PROBLEMS            (part2)
    VI.    MISCELLANEOUS HINTS            (part2)
    VII.    MORE HINTS                (part2)

===================================8<====>8============================


IV. LINUX and DOS
=================
*** This section is co-written by Mark Komarinski, A. V. Le Blanc and
*** MM. Corsini. The official maintainer is Mark, if you have *any*
*** questions, critics \ldots, mail him at [e-mail]
*** Last Update 15.11.92


QUESTION: Is is possible to access DOS from Linux?

ANSWER: Yes.
(1) The mtools package allows you to access DOS files;
it emulates the DOS commands CD, COPY, DEL, DIR, TYPE, and others.
(2)  Since approximately version 0.97 of the kernel, you can mount
DOS file systems as part of your Linux directory tree, providing you
have an appropriate mount command.
(3)  A DOS emulator is in alpha test, which will allow some DOS programs
and utilities to run under Linux.


QUESTION: Why use mtools if you can just mount a drive?

ANSWER: Mtools is good if you want to do something quickly.  For
example, if you want to get directories on a bunch of floppies.  The
mount procedure requires you to mount the drive, get a directory, then
umount it. Mtools lets you get the directory with one command.

(Dirk Hohndel:) Mtools is really fast when copying disks. I mount the
SLS directory of my SUN to my linux box and use mcopy to get the files
on the disks. 3 times faster than using xcopy under DOS

QUESTION: How do I get the mtools package set up correctly?

ANSWER: The mtools package is available in source form on most Linux
ftp sites.  The most recent version (As of Sept 1992) is mtools.n2,
and there are linked binaries and library (.a) files available as
well (for example, as part of MCC interim releases of Linux).
In the n2 release of mtools, there is only one executable binary
which works differently depending on its name: you can create hard
or symbolic links to it named mcopy, mdel, mdir, mtype, etc; this
is how the Makefile in version n2 of mtools does it, and it saves
several hundred kilobytes of disk space.  Finally, you need the
correct information in the file /etc/mtools, which is described below.

QUESTION: What is the format of the file /etc/mtools?

ANSWER: A complete entry in the file /etc/mtools contains the following
fields: drive, device, fat, cylinders, heads, sectors, offset.  Two
examples of entries from /etc/mtools are

     A /dev/fd0 12 80 2 15
     C /dev/hda1 16 0 0 0

which defines the DOS disk A: as accessible through the device /dev/fd0,
having a 12-bit FAT, 80 cylinders, 2 heads, and 15 sectors per track;
DOS disk C: is accessible through the device /dev/hda1, has a 16-bit
FAT, and its geometry is simply that of the hard disk where it lives.
The last three numbers can be 0 if you wish; this allows mtools to
try to figure out the disk's geometry itself, and perhaps to fail.
A 12-bit FAT is common for floppies, but may occur in small hard
disk partitions.  A 16-bit FAT is common for hard disks.
This is an extract of my /etc/mtools file:
A /dev/fd0 12 0 0 0     # 3.5  1.4 Meg (autodetect)
B /dev/fd1 12 0 0 0     # 5.25 1.2 Meg (autodetect)
C /dev/hda1 16 0 0 0    # 1st partition of my Disk

QUESTION: Where can I find out more about mtools?

ANSWER: There are two detailed README files in the mtools.n2 distribu-
tion.  These files treat compiling and using mtools.  There is a file
README.mtools which treats only using mtools, which is a part of the
MCC interim version of Linux.


QUESTION: How do I use the DOS file system?

ANSWER: The DOS file system is part of the kernel.  If you have a
kernel of level 97.1 or above, and an appropriate mount command, type

     mount -t msdos [-o conv=text] /dev/hda1 /dos

to mount the partition /dev/hda1 as an MS/DOS file system on the
directory /dos.  You'll need a recent mount command, from at least
release 97 or later of the root disk.  Recent mount commands also
accept the options conv=binary|text|auto (default is binary) to
specify that text end-of-lines in DOS files are to be converted to
UNIX end-of-lines (by omitting carriage return characters) in no cases
(binary) or in all cases (text) or in cases that don't have 'well-
known binary extensions' (e.g., .EXE or .COM) (auto).


QUESTION: I want to use the DOS file system with either conv=binary or
conv=auto, but I want to convert text files from DOS to UNIX format,
or from UNIX to DOS format.

ANSWER: Use the utility todos/fromdos which comes as part of the
dosfs package, currently (Sept 92) in released in version 8, or
use the flip utility by Rahul Dhesi.

QUESTION: Where can I find out more about the DOS file system?

ANSWER: There is a README file included in dosfs.XX.tar.Z (the current
value of XX is 8), and an abbreviated version of this in the MCC
interim package.


QUESTION: Whenever I use mtools to read a 720K in an 1.44MB drive, I
get a long sequence of reset-floppy-errors, why?

ANSWER: This is what happens if you use the /dev/PS0 device (b 2 28),
to read a 720k floppy you have to use another device, for example
/dev/fd0. Or you may use the setfdprm utility.


QUESTION: This sounds me like a chicken and eggs problem, how can I
install the mtools package at the very beginning.

ANSWER: You have to use the rawrite stuff or the mount procedure.


QUESTION: Could someone explain how to use rawrite?

ANSWER: Well, rawrite is a DOS util, which write sequential sector of
a formatted disk/floppy. When a floppy has been rawritten, you can
(under Linux) untar it (use x, v, z and f flags). As an example:
a) under Dos use rawrite
rawrite
    source: kermit.z
    destination: a
b) boot under Linux, and perform a tar
tar zxvf /dev/fd0
tar zxvp < /dev/fd0


You DO NOT NEED TO MOUNT a rawritten disk


QUESTION: What is as86.tar.Z ?

ANSWER: It's the port of Bruce Evans' minix assembler, you need it to
be able to recompile Linux at your convenience. In fact this is ONLY
used for boot/setup.S and boot/bootsect.S they create 80x86 REAL mode
code.


QUESTION: Turbo (Microsoft) Assembler won't compile the Linux boot
code.  In fact, some of the opcodes in these files look completely
unfamiliar.  Why?

ANSWER: The Linux boot codes are written in Bruce Evans' minix
assembler, which has the same opcodes as the original minix assembler
ported to linux get as86.tar.Z Anyway there are a few differences
between these and normal DOS assemblers.

QUESTION: What about the dos emulator (dosemu)?

ANSWER: Dosemu is in alpha testing now, so it is very unstable and crashes
easily.  Some programs (such as earlier versions of Turbo Pascal; TP
5.5 too) seem to work fine, but other programs such as dir /p will
crash the emulator.
Look in your favorite FTP site for the dosemu kit.


V. SOME CLASSICAL PROBLEMS
==========================

QUESTION: While running du I get "Kernel panic: free_inode: bit
already cleared".  Also, du produces a ENOENT error for all the files
in certain of my directories.  What's going on?

ANSWER: These are both consistent with a bad file-system.  That's
relatively easy to produce by not syncing before rebooting, as linux
usually has 1.5MB of buffer space held in memory (unless you have <=4M
RAM, in which case the buffers are only about 0.5MB). Also linux
doesn't do anything special about the bit-map blocks, and as they are
used often, those are the thing most likely to be in memory. If you
reboot, and they haven't been written to disk ...

Just do an fsck on the device, the -a flag might repair it otherwise,
the only thing to do is to reinstall the filesystem from the Images.

A sync is done only every 30 seconds normally (standard unix
practice), so do one by hand (some people think you should do 3 syncs
after each other, but that's superstition), or by logging out from the
startup-shell, which automatically syncs the system. Unmounting a
filesystem also syncs it (but of course you can never unmount root).

Another (sad) possibility is that you have bad blocks on your disk.
Not very probable, as they would have to be in the inode-tables, just
a couple of blocks in size. Again there aren't programs available to
read a disk for bad sectors and put them in some kind of
"bad-sector-file".  On IDE drives this is no problem (bad sectors are
automatically mapped away).


QUESTION: How can I partition my hard-drive to use Linux?

ANSWER: There are (at least) two ways to answer this. The easy way is
probably to use a program which will do it for you, such as the MS-DOS
fdisk, Minix fdisk, Xenix/Unix fdisk, or programs such as edpart.exe
or part.exe. With the 0.95a distribution, there is pfdisk. To use it
have a look in the beginner's guide written by I. Reid, it's clear and
it had worked for me like a charm. In the mcc-interim release ther is
also fdisk, which runs under Linux and manages partition tables
(it also creates extended partitions).

On the other hand, you can use a disk editor and modify the contents
of the partition table directly. This has been already done, and an
extensive explanatory note can be found in the mailing-list archives
(25th Jan. 92). You must also edit the bpb on the Dos partition you
are shrinking, otherwise Dos will step on Linux.

BTW It might be useful to set three (3) separated partitions for
Linux, one for the root, another one for the usr and a third one for
swap, as an illustration, my root partition is 10Meg, the usr is 22Meg
and instead of a swap partition I use a swap file. As an experience I
have used MS-DOS fdisk to partition my two hd and got no peculiar
difficulties.
You can, as long as you stay within the 64MB per filesystem limit
(Minix-filesystem limitation), have swap, root, etc, ... all on there.


QUESTION: I heard something about repartition a hard disk without
deleting everything on it, any clue?

ANSWER: It's not a program but a partition procedure which requires
a) a partitionning program
b) a sector editor
The procedure itself can be found (at least) in digest#132 Vol2.


QUESTION: What must I do to mkfs a floppy?

ANSWER: blocks are of size 1K so 1.44 floppy is 1440 blocks. The
floppy has to be formatted before this will work (e.g., fdformat can
do this from within Linux).


QUESTION: I have some trouble with tar/untar; any clue ?

ANSWER: The tar provided on .96 and latter is Pax (don't know for .98)
which do not accept the z flag. You can download the GNU tar at tsx-11
in /pub/linux/binaries/usr.bin


QUESTION: I can do this as root but not as non-root, is it a bug?

ANSWER: Except for an early make utility, the problem is caused by an
incorrect permission flag. The most common problems are about /tmp
which should be 1777 and /dev/ttys? which might be 766. So as root do

    chmod 1777 /tmp ; chmod 766 /dev/ttys?


QUESTION: "du" reports twice the size showed with "ls -l", is it a
bug?

ANSWER: No it is not, the report is 512 bytes multiple (due to POSIX
requirement), for KB you just add the -k flag. You can add a du
function in your .profile which does this automatically, something
like du(){ /usr/bin/du -k $* }


QUESTION: Sometimes, I get "mount can't open lock file"; what does this
means?

ANSWER: This can happened for two reasons:
A) You try to mount something as non-root. In that case you can either
retry as root, or set the setuid bit to mount as follows:
- be sure that mount belongs to root, if not do 'chown root /bin/mount'
- set the setuid bit with 'chmod u+s /bin/mount'
BTW you have to do the same with umount (in order to be able to unmount)
Remark that it is NOT safe to allow anyone to perform mount/umount,
you should rather write a small utility that will make any user able
to mount/unmount a (and ONLY a) *floppy*
B) You are root. mount wants to open /etc/mtab and /etc/mtab~ - the
first one for reading, the second as lock file. If there is already a
mtab~ remove it. This can happen if you used once gnuemacs on mtab.

To forbid that case, just add the following entry in your /etc/rc file:
rm -f /etc/mtab


QUESTION: When I try "mount /dev/hd?? /user", I get error 2.

ANSWER: Be sure, that your mount point /user does exist; if not perform
a "mkdir /user".
BTW the error numbering is explained in /usr/include/errno.h


QUESTION: Since I have upgrade my Linux kernel, ps won't work anymore,
why?

ANSWER: Each time you upgrade (or re-compile the kernel), you should
perform a 'ps -U' (-U is for update the /etc/psdatabase).

Every time you boot a new kernel you have to do a 'ps U' to update
the psdatabase, after doing this you can remove the system file or
do a make clean.

The pathname to the system binary [/usr/src/linux/tools/system] is
stored in the psdatabase, so you only have to specify it if you have
moved your source tree or if you are creating the psdatabase for the
first time. The psdatabase is always '/etc/psdatabase'. The system
file is obtained in compiling the linux kernel (which I assume is
rooted in /usr/src/linux).

BTW: sometimes a patch makes recompiling ps necessary. Sometimes you
even have to patch the ps-suite.


QUESTION: Since Linux 0.96b I have a lot of core file all over
my disk. How can I sweep them away ?

ANSWER: Use the following command
        find / -name core -exec rm {} \;

BTW: think twice before using this command, there might be a John Core
user on your system; this command will erase his mail :)

(Rick)     If you never want to see another core file, put this line into
     your /etc/rc file:
                 ulimit -c 0

provided you are a bash user :))


QUESTION: I can only log-in as "root", is it normal ?

ANSWER: No, add "rm -f /etc/nologin" in your /etc/rc.local file


VI. MISCELLANEOUS HINTS
=======================
*** This section is maintained by Matt Welsh ([e-mail]). Please
*** mail me if you have any changes/updates/questions. Thanks -mdw

Special gcc information are located in section IX. A special section is
devoted to it since it's *the* compiler of Linux. I have subsectionned
this part in 3 subsections: Misc/Device Major-Minor/Serial Information.

VI.A. Misc information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: It seems that $#@! ported on linux don't run correctly, what
do I do about reporting bugs?

ANSWER: (Matt Welsh) It's possible that either the program itself has a bug
or that Linux has a problem that this program brings out. :) But first check
that the size of the file(s) corresponds that of the files(s) on the FTP
sites where it's available. If they're different, either you downloaded them
incorrectly (i.e. you forgot to turn on "bin") or whoever put them on the
FTP site uploaded them incorrectly.

If that's not the problem, then post to comp.os.linux asking about the
program, to verify that it is a bug. PLEASE: when posting possible "bug
reports" include all error and output information from running/compiling
the program. Just saying "it doesn't work" isn't very helpful. Also mention
your specific setup, Linux version, GCC version, etc. Some of these things
depend on running under certain versions and you may have missed that
information.

Note that my "[e-mail]" bug reporting list has been
phased out. It turns out that Linux has so few bugs, most of which are
resolved on the newsgroup or through Linus before I can accumulate them
and post. :) In short: if there's a bug in Linux or in Linux-ported
software, it will usually be fixed in the next patchlevel or version.


QUESTION: Has $#@! been ported to Linux?

ANSWER: First check out the FTP sites and read the monthly INFO-SHEET,
as well as the new "Linux News" and the META-FAQ's (all of which are
either available on the FTP sites and/or posted to the newsgroup as they're
written). Also check out the "Linux Project Registry" (posted to the
newsgroup and on the FTP sites) which lists ongoing/current Linux projects.
Also look in the "old" Linux digests and mailing-list archives, kept on
tsx-11.mit.edu and nic.funet.fi. Also, see if there's a GNU(*) version
of the program you're looking for (which are available everywhere).
Since Linux uses GCC as its native compiler, most GNU software ports
directly to Linux without problems. If all else fails, ask on the
mailing list or newsgroup if the program is ported and where it's
available.


(*) GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix, which (besides being a recursive
acronym) is a project started by the Free Software Foundation (the FSF)
to write a freely distributable version of Unix.  The GNU kernel is
named HURD, and is based on Mach.  It is currently being written, and is
not yet done.  Many of the GNU utilities, however, are completed and are
much more functional than the original Unix utilities.  Since they are
freely available, Linux is using them as well.



QUESTION: I've ported $#@! to Linux, what should i do to add it in the
standard distribution?

ANSWER: (Matt Welsh) First read the previous Q/A, then talk to the
maintainers of the various releases (MCC interim, SLS, and so on)
about including your program with those releases. The best way to make
programs available to the rest of the world is to upload it to one of
the Linux FTP sites (such as tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/incoming or
sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/Incoming).

BTW Whenever you submit binaries, please think that if you link them
with shared libraries, this might cause problems for those who (gasp!)
don't have the shared libraries installed. You can either link them
using -static, and if someone wants to build a shared version on their
own machine they can get the sources (which you should also make
available) and build it themself. Or else provide the shared lib.


QUESTION: I want to port $#@! to Linux, what are the flags?

ANSWER: Recall that Linux implements subset of SYSV and POSIX, so
-DUSG and -DPOSIX work in general.

NOTE1: SIGBUS is not there, and can be safely commented out in general.
NOTE2: see section related to GCC, in the third part of this FAQ, for
more details.

VI.B. Major/Minor device number
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*** This section is maintained by Rick Miller, any comments,
*** suggestions, remarks should be mailed to him at <[e-mail]>
*** Last Update: 17 Nov 1992 16:00:20 GMT